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My last two weeks of vacation involved a lot of magic lessons from grandma that meandered even more so them normal with Sofia asking questions that were beyond me and Ami. Then I would have to go and steal my puppy back from Aran, Peter, and Milinda. And then my evenings were free for worrying about going to high school.

Meander was another Grandpa word I decided to start using. It meant to wander aimlessly or casually without an urgent destination. Not the best way to teach if you wanted to learn, but it was more fun that way.

I did take the chance to talk to Grandma about working with her for the summer after I graduated, with people who are long lived you got to give them time to get used to ideas. Grandma seemed pretty happy at the idea, which got me a jealous look from Sophia.

She apologized later. “I’m sorry, it’s just that I would have loved the opportunity to work with Brianna Caine when I was younger, or even now. But I got a little boy I want to be there for as he grows up." She gave me an evil grin. "So even though I'm so jealous that I hate your guts with every fiber of my being, I shouldn’t try to make you feel bad.”

Then I got to talk to her about her high school years and found out she had done the same thing with making things fly around as a young witch, even if it wasn’t as much as Ami and she hadn’t started until she was fifteen, which was more typical for the average witch.

She shook her head at me. “Your family is insanely powerful Sara. It’s going to be like being part of a rich family, which you also are. People will want to get to know you to get closer to your sister or your Grandma…” She shuttered. “Or for intervention from your Aunt or Great Grandmother. I knew some people like that because my Dad is, not so much of a Hollywood big shot, as an average shot. But some people tried to work me.” She nodded grimly. “Watch yourself.”

On the first day of school, I ran and did a lightweight, two hundred pounds, high repetition workout with Grandpa’s weight set. The old man puttered in and played with Saku using a knotted rope while I finished up.

Puttered, from Grandpa again. To move or go in a casual, unhurried way.

"I wish I had something like a pen that had gotten passed down in the family to give you or some sort of meaningful present. But your Mom thinks I'm spoiling you every time I buy something for you."

I sat up from the weight bench and wiped away the little bit of sweat I had worked up, then hesitated. "I wish I could say how much I care about you without you having to turn it into some joke or try to mess up my hair."

He grinned without looking up.

“I’ve been trying to have this conversation with you all summer Grandpa. And now when I get the chance I'm all over the place in my head about going to high school, feeling like I'm going to be the weird Asian girl in an all white school, and not being a werewolf while so many of them are, and I can’t do the magic that I should be able to do, and…”

I stood up and began pacing as I talked faster and faster. Throwing my hands out more and more with each step, until Grandpa moved quicker than I had ever seen him move before as he stepped up in front of me and flicked me in the forehead with the finger of flicking.

Glaring up at him as he stood there with a warm smile on his face, I caught my breath. Then growled at him. “What was that for?”

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He pointed over at Saku. “You were scaring the dog.”

My Pup looked back and forth at us from where she had been comfortably curled up on one of the old mats in the corner and tilted her head to the side.

“She is not!”

Grandpa nodded. “Okay, you were scaring me. You’re all wound up and all I know is that this is something that a hug won’t help. So I flicked you with the finger of flicking. I want to help, but I don’t know if I can. What do you need?”

I took a deep breath. “I need someone to fight.”

John Lathe, my dear beloved Grandfather, who had managed to deal with a vampire out for his blood without the use of violence, tried to punch my head off.

Then he got me by the tee shirt as I turned my head to the side and tried to put his knee in my stomach. I pushed his knee aside and grabbed his arm as I twisted it around to weaken his grip as I tried to push him back with my foot hooked behind his ankle.

He jumped, and I heard something crackle high up in the shoulder of the arm I had gotten a hold of.

I jumped back with a gasp, both hands over my mouth as my Grandpa took a step back and looked down at his shoulder which was hanging part way out of the socket. He shook it a little and it pulled up with a pop all on its own as he grimaced in pain.

Then he looked at me with his eyebrows up high. “Did that help?”

I started slapping at him, completely without any technique. “Don’t ever do anything like that again old man! What the hell were you thinking?”

He just let me hit him until the damned tears started, then he patted me on the shoulder. "There, there. Let it out. You might want to work on fighting people that can heal that fast, we got our own way of getting free from holds."

I kicked him in the leg. “I don’t need you to help me that way. I got both of my parents for that. Just be you.”

He nodded and let his shoulder sag down. “Good, because that hurt. Now you should go shower and get something to eat. Being hungry is only going to make being nervous worse.”

Then he sat down on the weight bench. "I'm going to get in a workout, although the bars are lighter than I'm used to, there’s one less plate on it.”

That’s the first time I ever flipped off my Grandpa. I will not explain why, or give him the satisfaction of asking how long he had waiting to use that.

Back at my house, I got into the shower while my Dad was waking up Ami for the second time. I got dressed, set the table for breakfast, and poured the orange juice before I ate with my family. Then I headed out to wait for the bus with both my parents standing by me.

"Dad, Mom." They both looked at me. "I don't know for sure, but I think having my Mommy and Daddy standing by me when we get picked up by the bus is going to make me uncool for all of high school." Ami nodded in agreement.

My Mom shook her head. “I am not sending my little boy off to his first day of school while watching from the house, go stand over there by yourself if you want to pretend to not be related to the only other Asian people in this town.”

Ami followed me over and grinned. "Do you think we can pull it off?"

I grunted in a way that showed a tolerated appreciation of her joke according to my notes on man speak.

“You know Dad is going to do something, right?”

I grunted to show my acknowledgment and awareness as I glared at my father who was deliberately looking off into the distance.

I whispered, “Don’t.”

I could hear a motor coming.

He grinned.

I glared, “Don’t.”

He cleared his throat as an old yellow school bus turned the corner, and pulled to a stop. A stop sign on the side of the bus rotated out with a squeal, and the door folded open.

I rushed to get on the bus with Ami close behind me. Mom gave Aran one last hug and made a few unnecessary adjustments to his clothes before standing up with tears in her eyes as she looked me in the eyes and whispered. “Get them John.”

My Father began waving his hand in a large arc over his head. “Goodbye sweethearts! I’m going to miss my precious little girls! Watch out for the boys, you can’t trust them!”

I helped Aran up the stairs before hissing at the grinning middle aged woman sitting behind the driving wheel. “Close the doors, if you have any sense of mercy, close the doors and dive away.”

I heard her explain “You got to be seated before I can get up moving young lady.” as my Dad continued to shout outside.

“I put some money in your lunch bag to buy milk. You’re still growing, you’re going to need it for strong bones. Oh, and tell all your friends I opening a Dojo, I’m going to need students.”

I threw myself into a seat next to my brother and the bus jerked into motion. Wait? What?

So that’s how my morning started on the first day of school.